The Basler Zeitung came to the conclusion that the bilateral model is the only option, but the relationship between Switzerland and the European Union needs a new thrust: Zeit für den grossen Kuhhandel (23 December 2010).

The Basler Zeitung is worth reading for its views on important dossiers, as well as for its evaluation of the chances for agreement on the whole.

Micheline Calmy-Rey

On 1 January 2011 foreign minister Micheline Calmy-Rey became the president of the Swiss Confederation for a year, and on the same day SwissInfo.ch published an interview where she presented her views on the year ahead: "Mehr Selbstvertrauen statt Selbstkritik", headlined ”New president urges more self-confidence” in the English translation.

President Calmy-Rey wants to improve EU relations:

DRS: Switzerland is facing important decisions in its European policy. How can you make the climate in Switzerland more favourable towards Brussels?

M.C.-R.: Consolidating relations with the EU is one of the priorities of my presidential year. These relations need to be as good as they can be, since the EU is our most important political and economic partner.

So far we have followed the bilateral path. The results of this path have been good as far as the economic and security are concerned.

But as far as our sovereignty goes, the results have been more mixed. We have adopted a lot of things from the EU, such as developments in the legal area, but we cannot have our own say. That is not something I can be satisfied with.

The EU says that the 120 agreements [including the bilaterals I and II] incurred a great deal of work, so relations must be simplified. It argues that we have profited from our access to its market with its 500 million consumers. So it claims we should also adopt EU regulations.

But as a non-EU-member, on the basis of our sovereignty, we say “no” to the automatic adoption of EU law. Should we embark on such discussions, our democratic rights such as initiatives and referendums would have to be preserved.

The discussions about ”horisontal” issues of streamlined adoption and homogenous implementation of EU law have actually started at working group level, but president Calmy-Rey offers no concrete suggestions as to how to improve the relationship.

Lamenting the lack of influence and the potential offer of (political level) discussions seem to be the only concessions, and if constitutional initiatives and referendums exclude all automaticity, we have difficulties seeing how the EU and Switzerland can make progress.

Ralf Grahn

P.S. ”EU questions Hungary as presidency opens”, writes The Irish Times, one of the many articles I hope that EPP president Wilfried Martens reads as he ponders the founding values of the European Union, as well as the principle of non-discrimination and fundamental rights in the EU. The biggest political group has the greatest responsibility towards the citizens.